Maradona

2022 - 12 - 30

Post cover — Image courtesy of "India Today"

Pele's emotional parting message to Argentina legend and friend ... (India Today)

Pele dies at 82: The Brazil football icon's emotional parting message to Argentina legend and friend Diego Maradona has sadly come true after his death.

"My dear friend, Mbappe, scoring four goals in a final. Pele said: "Today, football continues to tell its story, as always, in an enthralling way. It will be because I can finally embrace you again." So, I want to say that you are incomparable. You were a genius that charmed the world. Pele wrote a touching tribute after Maradona's death was announced in which he said "I hope we will play soccer together in the sky."

Pele's brilliance endured despite rivalry with Diego Maradona (Los Angeles Times)

As soccer's first global star, Pelé had an influence on the sport different from the stars that followed him, including Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi.

About the only time Messi was subjected to the kind of fouls Pelé endured was in the final of the Copa America Centenario in 2016. Detractors of Pelé point to how the version of the game he played was much slower than the one played now. With their striking yellow jerseys, Pelé and his cohorts mesmerized the world with a style of play that was as effective as it was aesthetically pleasing. On the field, there was nothing phony about him. The same defender was red-carded in the 28th minute after fouling Messi again. His style continues to be emulated to this day, even if the copycats are unaware whose moves they are stealing. His legacy could be observed in the no-look passes of Ronaldinho, the flicks over defenders’ heads by Neymar. In recent years, Pelé has been excluded with greater frequency from debates about the greatest player of all time, Maradona and Messi now viewed as the only two viable contenders for the title. Regardless of how ugly they play, the Brazilians are viewed by the masses as artist-athletes. Jersey numbers used to be assigned by position and 10 was earmarked for a team’s attacking midfielder or withdrawn forward, which meant it often went to the team’s most talented player. [Pelé, who rose from a Brazilian slum to become the world’s greatest soccer player, dies at 82](https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2022-12-29/pele-soccer-brazil-dies-obit) Pelé was soccer’s straight-edged counter to Maradona, the outspoken cocaine addict who fraternized with Communist dictators.

Pelé or Maradona? Debate will continue raging over who was greater (The Hindu)

Before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo came along, the enduring debate in soccer about who was the greatest player centered on two men: Pelé and Diego ...

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, eclipsed by Messi at the Qatar World Cup, was more expansive, calling the Brazilian "King Pele" and an inspiration to millions. Pelé was magnanimous on hearing of Maradona's death, saying: "I lost a great friend and the world lost a legend." Pelé thought Maradona was gauche and undignified and Maradona thought Pele was a sell-out. "There Maradona, possibly the most complete player ever, playmaker and goalscorer, technically brilliant, unpredictable and impulsive, both on and off the field, a player plagued by a variety of problems for many years." "Here Pele, the striker whose territory was the penalty box, a player who scored goals for fun and became Minister of Sport, more your quiet type of person," FIFA wrote at the time. Maradona, who died at the age of 60 in 2020, guided Argentina to the World Cup in 1986 with perhaps the most influential performance ever at a major tournament, and lifted Napoli to unparalleled heights in Italy and Europe.

Pele vs Diego Maradona: Who has better stats in their career? (Khel Now)

The age-old debate of who is the greatest footballer of all time is one which will never die down, Pele and Maradona are also in that debate.

Pele won six Brasileiro titles with Santos and the NASL Bowl with New York Cosmos. Pele, on the other hand, spent the majority of his career in Brazil with Santos before a swansong in North America with New York Cosmos. The Argentine also plied his trade in a greater variety of leagues, playing for Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Napoli and Barcelona among others. He scored many goals for the Brazilian team to contribute to their rise to fame. Pele was part of three World Cup-winning teams (1958, 1962, 1970), while Maradona won the title just once (1986), though he lost in the final in 1990. [Maradona ](https://khelnow.com/tag/diego-maradona/)taking up the mantle in the 1980s into the 1990s, but that didn’t stop the comparisons.

Pele, Maradona, Messi: Who is the greatest of all time? (Daily Pioneer)

When FIFA declared Pele and Diego Maradona jointly the players of the 20th century, and effectively the best of all time, they side-stepped but did not ...

His difficulties with the Spanish tax authorities and a host of sponsorship deals have not tarnished his image. Maradona, not picked in the squad that won the World Cup at home in 1978 and sent off in a tournament-ending 3-1 loss to Brazil in Spain in 1982, shot to global fame in 1986 for the right and wrong reasons. The Argentine has a complete set of major medals: a World Cup (2022), a Copa America (2021), four Champions Leagues and three Club World Cups as well as a multitude of domestic Spanish and French trophies. Messi, who plays a variety of attacking positions, has also piled up the goals: 793 in 1,003 professional matches by the end of 2022. He was just 17 in 1958 when he was world champion in Sweden, scoring six goals, two in the final. Pele played in four World Cups, winning three times, a record not yet beaten and giving him one more than Maradona and Messi combined.

Pele's legend, Maradona's magic (The Kathmandu Post)

Before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo came along, the enduring debate in Football about who was the greatest player centred on two men: Pele and Diego ...

But what was etched on the viewers’ memories was the image of Maradona weeping like a boy at his loss. “They were overwhelmed to see the superhuman performance of Maradona in all seven matches he played and the greatest individual goal in WC history.” It was the 55th minute of the quarter-final between Argentina and England in the 1986 World Cup. “We erupted in celebration as Maradona scored the goal.” Brazil’s Pele, a prolific goalscorer who died aged 82 on Thursday in Sao Paulo, won the World Cup an unprecedented three times as a player in 1958, 1962 and 1970. Pele also became loved for his interaction with an Indian footballer of Nepali origin, Shyam Thapa.

'Play ball together in the sky': Pele had written after Maradona's death (Moneycontrol.com)

Brazilian football legend Pele, who died on Thursday, and Argentine great Diego Maradona had tremendous mutual respect and admiration for each other's ...

I lost a great friend and the world lost a legend. I would say that before Pele, football was just a sport." One day, I hope we can play ball together in the sky,” Pele had written on Instagram along with a picture of Maradona. "But that beautiful sentence is incomplete. [wave of tributes from the sports world](https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/sports-trends/pele-death-lionel-messi-neymar-kylian-mbappe-pay-moving-tributes-9785131.html) and beyond. [Diego Maradona](https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/tags/diego-maradona.html) jointly the players of the 20th century.